1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to check-out counters used, for example, in supermarkets and other sales establishments, and which are adapted for fully self-service and cashier-unattended use by a customer. It is more particularly directed to self-service check-out counters which integrally incorporate apparatus for on-side and on-demand manufacturing of flaccid or flexible bags, preferably custom-sized to conform to the volume of articles packed therein, for advantageously increasing the efficiency with which customers proceed through the check-out procedure and significantly decreasing merchant costs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Current practice at supermarkets is to have a cashier-operator at each check-out counter register, either by automated scanner or direct manual keyboard entry, or both, the prices of the various articles being purchased by a customer. The cashier, an assistant, or the customer then places the articles or goods in a bag which has generally been preformed most commonly either of plastic material or of paper. Similar practices and attendant problems exist at department stores and other retail establishments.
The design and operation of current, conventional check-out counters presents what is probably the single most significant impediment to the efficient movement of customers through and out of sales establishments such, for example, as supermarkets. The cashier at each check-out counter individually picks up and examines each item, enters item identification or pricing information into the register, and returns the item to the counter. When entry of all goods being purchased has been completed, the items are again picked up from the counter and packed in preformed bags usually by the cashier, sometimes by or with the assistance of a separate bagging employee and/or the customer. Typically, the cashier is unable to begin to process the next customer's intended purchases until packing of the preceding customer's goods is complete and the filled or partly filled bags have been removed from the check-out counter. Although the recent introduction and rapidly spreading use of laser-based universal product code scanning devices has somewhat increased the rate at which customers are able to advance through check-out counters, the cashier-operator must still pick up or grip each item, properly orient the item and slide it past the scanning window, and then replace it on the counter for subsequent packing in the preformed bags which must themselves be individually unfolded and set up on the counter for receiving the purchased articles. These repetitive operations are both awkward and time consuming, resulting in highly inefficient processing of customers who have already completed their selection of items to be purchased and want only to pay for their purchases and leave the store. They are in addition extremely labor intensive and, therefore, expensive for the merchant to implement in that a store must staff each and every check-out counter with an individual cashier-operator and, in some cases, with an additional bagging employee as well.
Moreover, in order to properly accommodate the great majority of customer purchase, the preformed bags are typically sized with sufficiently large dimensions for holding a substantial number of articles. In actual use, however, the volume of articles packed in the bags varies greatly from bag to bag resulting in customer difficulty and inconvenience in manipulating a combination of filled and partially filled open-topped bags, in substantial waste of materials and in further increased costs to the merchant.
The prior art discloses a variety of efforts to increase the efficiency of check-out operations. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,343 to Humble et al discloses a check-out counter arranged for direct operation by the customer and thus intended to obviate the need for the merchant to supply separate cashiers for each counter or check-out station. The customer individually passes each item to be purchased over a laser scanner located at one end of the counter, following which the item is returned to the counter and carried, by a moving conveyor belt, through a security tunnel and then to the opposite end of the counter for subsequent bagging. While passing through the security tunnel the item is scanned a second time to verify the identity of the item being purchased and thereby prevent inadvertent or fraudulent customer conduct during the check-out procedure. When scanning and subsequent packing in preformed bags of all of the articles being purchased has been completed, the customer proceeds to a central cashier where the goods ar paid for and the check-out transaction ends.
Although the arrangement of the Humble patent should reduce the merchant's costs by minimizing the number of cashier-employees required, it has no effect on the various other sources of check-out inefficiency previously noted. Indeed, in addition to having to handle each item at least twice--once to pass the article across the scanner and again to pack the item in a bag--the conveyor-carried passage of each item through the security tunnel and the rescanning of the product as a preventative to pilferage and honest mistake is likely to increase, rather than decrease, the time that each customer spends in the entire check-out procedure. And the use of preformed bags remains both an inconvenience for customers and a source of added and difficult-to-control costs to the merchant.